US slaps 5 Russians with sanctions over human rights
Source: Associated Press
Josh Lederman, Associated Press
Updated 2:27 pm, Wednesday, December 20, 2017
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on five Russians, including the leader of Chechnya, under a U.S. human rights law that has been a major irritant between Washington and Moscow.
The five Russians were targeted under the Magnitsky Act, passed by Congress in 2012 in response to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. He died in prison after exposing a tax fraud scheme involving Russian officials, and the law named after him allows the U.S. to target violators of human rights. All told, the U.S. has targeted 49 Russians under that law.
The latest additions include Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia. The Treasury Department said Kadyrov oversaw "disappearances and extrajudicial killings" and that he's believed to have ordered the killing of one of his political rivals. The rival had accused Kadyrov of personally carrying out torture.
Kadyrov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had been widely believed to have already been on a classified list of U.S. sanctions targets. Until Wednesday, the U.S. had not publicly disclosed his presence on any sanctions list.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/US-slaps-5-Russians-with-sanctions-over-human-12444394.php
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“Putin’s single largest foreign policy priority is to stop the Magnitsky Act,” said Browder, who led the push for the law’s passage. “The fact that the Trump administration has continued to implement it is a significant sign that Putin is not getting what he wants.”
The designations come amid controversy over a 2016 meeting that Trump officials attended with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin. Donald Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting after being offered incriminating information on Hillary Clinton, which was described by an intermediary as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Veselnitskaya has said that one of her goals was to lobby Trump officials against the Magnitsky Act.
Browder said the Kremlin’s efforts to get the law overturned had failed. “She was there on behalf of Putin to try to repeal the Magnitsky Act, and whatever attempts they made didn’t work.”
More at
http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-admin-sanctions-five-people-under-magnitsky-act/article/2010908
